The wife and I are in the habit of squirreling away two episodes of Black Sails at a time so that we can mini-binge. I usually skip over the theme song, and she finally complained and asked me why. I told her it was because it sounds too much like the opening part of Bon Jovi’s “Blaze of Glory.” It’s a thing with me. So she’s like, “Well, by now, every possible song’s been written already, you know.” And I said, “No, music is a form of math. Mathematically, melodic combinations are infinite.” Or something like that. Anyway, one of the major aspects of my favorite band, Wire, is that it doesn’t just claim to be art-rock, it really is just that. This album was, to get to the point of my monkey story, conceived as a math exercise, using only (for the most part) two chords for each song-part. I really like that they tried it, but the results are a little thin. It’s still awesome-sounding overall, but it’s hobbled by the over-the-top-even-for-Wire minimalism, and most of all by the absence of Graham Lewis’s singing. I love that guy, I really do — where is his wonderfully droopy voice? Bummer. A- — Eric W. Saeger